Sale of S. Kidman & Co "on hold" amid uncertainty over foreign investment in Australia www.xinhuanet.com

Growth in Chinese thermal coal imports won't last www.mining.com

Banks to cut money transfer fees with new system www3.nhk.or.jp

Wrestling: Furious Mongolians strip off over bronze medal defeat www.reuters.com

(Reuters) - Two Mongolian coaches stripped off and hurled their shoes in protest on Sunday after their wrestler Mandakhnaran Ganzorig was denied victory for running away from his Uzbek opponent in the dying seconds of their bronze medal contest.

Pfizer and Medivation reportedly close to $14bn deal www.bbc.com

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is reportedly in advanced talks to buy cancer drug company Medivation for about $14bn (£10.7bn).
The Financial Times and Bloomberg were among news groups reporting that an announcement of a takeover could come early this week.
San Francisco-based Medivation produces the prostate-cancer treatment Xtandi.
France's Sanofi had tried to buy Medivation, and Merck & Co and Celgene were also said to have considered bids.
Reuters reported on Sunday that Pfizer had agreed in principle to pay about $80 per share for Medivation, a substantial premium to the $52.50 offer for Medivation that France's Sanofi made in April.
Pfizer's drugs portfolio includes the breast cancer treatment Ibrance and several other promising immuno-oncology products.
In addition to Xtandi, which is already approved for sale in the US and is forecast to generate $5.7bn in sales by 2020, Medivation has a breast cancer treatment under development, Talazoparib.
Medivation was founded in 2004. It's share price has more than doubled in the past six months on takeover talk.
In April, Pfizer scrapped a planned merger with Ireland's Allergan after the deal hit trouble because of plans to change US tax laws.
The US Treasury had announced plans to prevent deals known as "inversions", where a US firm merges with a company in a country with a lower tax rate.
The Pfizer-Allergan deal, valued at $160bn, would have been the biggest example of an "inversion".
It would also have been the biggest pharmaceutical deal in history.

Viacom boss Philippe Dauman resigns following $72m settlement www.bbc.com

The chief executive officer of Viacom, Philippe Dauman, has resigned after a fraught, familial battle for control of the US media giant.
Thomas Dooley, his longtime right-hand man as the company's chief operating officer, replaces him temporarily.
Mr Dauman also stood down as president, under a settlement that includes a $72m (£55m) payoff. He remains non-executive chairman until 13 September.
He is due to present a plan to sell a small stake in Paramount Pictures.
The settlement follows a battle between Mr Dauman and Viacom's controlling shareholder, Sumner Redstone.
Until recently Mr Dauman, 62, was a close confidant to the 93-year-old Mr Redstone and had worked for him for 30 years.
However, in May Mr Redstone removed him and another board member, George Abrams, from National Amusements - a company that controls Mr Redstone's major shareholdings in both Viacom as well as CBS, the US television network.
At the time Mr Redstone said he had been unhappy with Mr Dauman's Paramount plan.
Mr Dauman and Mr Abrams said Mr Redstone's daughter Shari Redstone had played a role in their removal. They said she was manipulating her father and filed a lawsuit alleging that Mr Redstone was unfit to make the decision.
Ms Redstone called the accusation "absurd".
Viacom will also appoint five new board members, suggested by National Amusements, who will help find a new chief executive.
Mr Dooley will act as CEO until 30 September, the end of Viacom's fiscal year, by which time the board is expected to make its decision.
Shares in Viacom closed up 1.8% at $48.70.

Chinese firm 'eyes Liverpool FC stake' www.bbc.com

A consortium led by a Chinese investment company is interested in buying a stake in Liverpool Football Club, according to media reports.
The Financial Times said Chinese state-owned firm Everbright and private equity firm PCP Capital Partners were behind the multi-million pound bid.
Other reports quoted club insiders as saying an unsolicited preliminary offer had already been submitted.
But the club and owners Fenway Sports Group said they had received no bids.
The FT quoted the club's chief executive, Ian Ayre, as saying, "There is no bid and we have no ongoing investment discussion of any kind with anyone."
US firm Fenway acquired Liverpool for £300m in 2010. The latest reported bid is said to value the club at more than £700m.
Quiet acquisitions
In recent years, Chinese investors and firms have quietly been acquiring stakes in football clubs in England, Spain, France, Netherlands and the Czech Republic, while President Xi Jinping has professed a love of the game.
In December last year, Manchester City's parent company, City Football Group, sold a 13% stake, worth £265m, to a consortium of Chinese investors.
According to Deloitte's Football Money League, Liverpool are the ninth richest football club in the world, with revenues of €391.8m (£339m) in the 2014-15 season.
Last financial year, the club made a £60m pre-tax profit, thanks to the £75m it made from selling Luis Suarez.
Without the boost from the Uruguayan footballer - which the club invested in eight new players - Liverpool would have broken even for the year.

Duterte Threatens to Withdraw Philippines From UN, Hits US www.bloomberg.com

Davao, Philippines (AP) -- The Philippines' brash-talking president threatened Sunday to withdraw his country from the United Nations and lashed out at U.S. police killings of black men in his latest outburst against critics of his anti-drug campaign, which has left hundreds of suspects dead.
President Rodrigo Duterte pointed to the haunting image of a bloodied child being pulled from the rubble of a missile-struck building in the Syrian city of Aleppo to note the inability of the U.S. and the U.N. to stop such deadly conflicts, complaining that he comes under fire for the killings of criminals.
The U.S. State Department and two U.N. human rights experts have urged Duterte and Filipino authorities to stop extrajudicial killings in the fight against illegal drugs and ensure law enforcement compliance with international human rights obligations. Philippine police say more than 500 drug suspects have been killed in gunbattles with police since Duterte was sworn in eight weeks ago.
Agnes Callamard, the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on summary executions, suggested that Philippine officials could be held liable, saying in a recent statement that "claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international legal obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings."
Criticisms against Duterte's crusade against a problem that he says has become a pandemic provoked an angry outburst from Duterte, who held a news conference after midnight Saturday that dragged on for more than two hours.
"Maybe we'll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you're that rude, son of a bitch, we'll just leave you," Duterte told reporters in Davao, where he first built a reputation for his tough crime-busting style while serving as the southern city's longtime mayor.
Duterte also belittled U.N. work in the Philippines without providing facts, raising questions, for example, about the performance of the world body's agency that fights hunger.
If the Philippines breaks off from the U.N. — which Duterte called "inutile" and "stupid" — he said he would invite other countries like China and African nations to form a new international body. The U.N., he said, should return Manila's financial contributions.
"Look at the iconic boy that was taken out from the rubble and he was made to sit in the ambulance and we saw it," Duterte said, referring to the photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, that has gone viral online.
"Why is it that United States is not doing anything? I do not read you," Duterte said. "Anybody in that stupid body complaining about the stench there of death?"
When asked about the possible repercussions of his remarks, Duterte replied: "I don't give a shit about them. They are the ones interfering."
Duterte wondered whether U.N. officials were threatening to put him in prison and repeated that he was ready to sacrifice his life and presidency for his country.
Reacting to U.S. criticisms, Duterte cited the string of shootings involving police and black men that have sparked protests in the U.S.
"Why are you Americans killing the black people there, shooting them down when they are already on the ground?" he asked. "Answer that question, because even if it's just one or two or three, it is still human rights violations."
Duterte's drug crackdown has left more than 500 suspected dealers dead and more than 4,400 arrested since he took office on June 30. Nearly 600,000 people have surrendered to authorities, hoping to avoid getting killed. The arrests have further overwhelmed the Philippines' overcrowded jails.

Glass bridge: China opens world's highest and longest www.bbc.com

The much-heralded "world's highest and longest" glass-bottomed bridge has opened to visitors in central China.
It connects two mountain cliffs in what are known as the Avatar mountains (the film was shot here) in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province.

Foreign funds boost investment in Russia, but all's far from perfect www.rt.com

Investments in Russia have grown for a second week in a row, reports Sberbank CIB, citing data from Emerging Portfolio Fund Research. In the week through August 17, capital inflow has more than doubled.